Time Waits For No One
by Sita
Summary: A young AndrAIa and Matrix land in a system and are befriended by the local Guardian Zara Mavis and her companion Michael-Angelo Compton; their lives become more intertwined than they could ever imagine. Update: Chaptering problem fixed.
1. The Game

**Time Waits For No One **

Written by Lady Sita 

Disclaimer: ReBoot and its characters are owned by Mainframe Entertainment. The characters of Zara Mavis, Maxell, and Michael-Angelo Compton were created by me and are not to be used without my permission. This fic is also not to be posted without my permission. Any comments, questions, suggestions, or flames are to be sent to enchantress51@hotmail.com. 

Notes: Telepathic messages are in [brackets] and thoughts are in _italics_. 

Rating: PG13 (mild language, violence, innuendo) 

Summary: A young AndrAIa and Matrix land in a system and are befriended by the local Guardian Zara Mavis and her companion Michael-Angelo Compton; their lives become more intertwined than they could ever imagine. 

Time Conversion:  
_User Time ~ ReBoot Time_  
Second - Microsecond  
Minute - Nanosecond  
Hour - Cycle  
Day - Megacycle  
Week - Second  
Month - Minute  
Year - Hour  


~~~~~~~~~~ 

**Chapter I:  
The Game**

"_No rest for the weary_." The Guardian rubbed her temples, feeling a strong headache coming on. She looked up into the darkening sky, as the portal for yet another game cube opened high above. _These Users must not need downtime!_

"Zara!" 

She turned as she heard someone shout her name. That someone was rapidly approaching on a zipboard. "Wait up!" he called out, coming to a stop before her. 

Zara scrutinized him as he compressed his zipboard. "Michael, what are you doing here? Don't you have something else to do? Like, I don't know, your job?" 

He grinned at her. "Break time." 

The system warning bells chimed, alerting citizens to clear the area. She sighed. "You might as well play the game…there's no way out of it now." 

Stepping up next to her, Michael gazed up into the sky. "Like you could make me leave, anyway." 

She shoved him. "Don't make me try." She pulled out what looked to be a small silver road with a globe on one end. Zara held it out in front of her and placed pressure on a small hidden indentation in the center. The rod expanded several feet, while the end opposite tampered to a deadly point, and gold filigree spiraled from each end to meet in the center. 

As always, Michael watched with fascination. "When do I get to use it?" 

"When are you going to quit asking?" 

"I know I should have become a Guardian just so-" Michael's word were cut off as the game cube landed on top of them. 

~~~~~~~~~~

From a very young age, Zara Mavis had dreamed of the glory and glamour, of being a Guardian: the thrills, fighting the bad guys, saving the day, and being the hero. 

Finally, when Zara was ten hours old, her parents sent her from her home system of Arun to the Guardian Academy, hoping she would lose her zeal for such a hazardous line of work. Zara quickly saw that underneath the polished surface of every Guardian was hours of training and dedication. She learned the real qualities a Guardian need were a sharp processor, fast reflexes, and most important, a good heart. 

But she stuck to it, and through hard work and diligence, she rose to be one of the top students in her graduating class. She finished her training at the age of eighteen, and was chosen to be a System Guardian. Zara hoped to be sent to her home system, Arun. Instead, she was assigned to a far off system on the other side of the net, called Compaq. There, she was warmly welcomed by Command.com Maxell, who informed her that they were in dire need of a Guardian, for the User had been inputting games more and more often, and many had already suffered. 

Soon after she had settled in, a resident walked up to her, just after she had beaten a game. "Greetings, Guardian Mavis," he said, reaching out and warmly shaking her hand. "I'm Michael-Angelo Compton. But everyone calls me Michael." 

She gave him a quick look over. His silver skin, along with his black hair, made his vivid green eyes stand out. He wore the silicon ear clip that seemed to be the trend among the locals. He had a slight build, but he stood at least a foot over her, and was clearly had more strength than she had thought at first. Michael flashed her a humble smile. 

She smiled back. "Well then, Michael, would you mind calling me by my first name, Zara? 'Guardian Mavis' just sounds way too formal." 

To Michael, Zara was perfect, the vision of an angel. She was well endowed, and had the body of warrior, due to her extensive and vigorous training at the Academy. Her skin was rosy pink in color, and a peppering of spots ran down the sides of her arms neck, and face. Her hair was of a bronze hue with blonde streaks running through it. And to Michael, the most remarkable element of this Guardian were her eyes: they were completely blue. He seemed to sink into them as he started into those azure depths, rendered totally motionless. 

Zara blinked her liquid sapphire eyes, thrusting Michael out of the trance he had sunk into. His processor went blank for a moment, then he remembered he had the ability to speak. "Uhhhhh…I didn't just want to meet Compaq's new Guardian." Zara looked at him questioningly. He rubbed the back of his neck absently, almost losing control under the scrutiny of her gentle gaze. "Well, ever since the User started inputting games, things had been getting…bad. Every second, the deletion toll went up. My sister and our parents included." He paused, trying to regain what little composure he had left. This woman and the memories of his family were unnerving him. 

In that split-microsecond, she saw him for what he truly was: a honest, benevolent grieving man, not the haughty businessman she had perceived him to be at first. It touched something inside her. "I'm sorry." 

Michael gave her a small smile and continued. "I tried my best, but one untrained sprite is no match for a game cube." He stretched out his hand in an welcoming gesture. "I just wanted to thank you for coming to Compaq. It means a lot to me, and my home." She smiled back at him again and shook the offered hand. 

~~~~~~~~~~

For a microsecond, Zara was slightly alarmed. She and Michael were under water. Calming herself down, she quickly double-clicked her icon. Michael followed suit. 

[Alphanumeric!] Zara turned to look at her companion, surprised to see he was now a fish-like creature, perhaps what the Users called a merman. His skin was a dark, scaly green and his normally black hair was a bright blue. His eyes were slightly unnerving, for they were red with a black slit down the middle, like cat's eyes. He looked down at were feet used to be and saw that they had been replaced by a tail ending in a shark-like fin. Zara looked down at her now clawed hand. Her own skin was an electric blue, her hair had morphed to black, and her eyes were yellow. They both were some kind of strange metallic armor, and gills ran up the sides of their necks. 

Michael looked back at her. [Why is it that I'm talking, but my mouth isn't moving?] 

[We must be telepathic.] 

[Does that mean you can read my processor?] Michael was beginning to look a little uncomfortable. 

[No, fortunately not. I don't think I'd want to see in there, anyway.] She studied him closely, crossing her arms. [Now, what were you saying before the game dropped on us?] 

[Uhhhhhh…] 

[Something about being a Guardian, perhaps?] she teased him. [It doesn't matter; you'd never make it as a Guardian anyway.] 

He grunted. [Enough with the teasing, okay? Let's just get this over with.] 

The Guardian laughed before looking to the trident she held, the form her keytool had taken. She spoke aloud: "Presario: Game stats." 

Presario was silent for a nano. Then it whirred and chirped to her, as she listened intently. 

[So?] asked Michael. 

[The game is called The Lost Treasure of Atlantis. Our objective is either to destroy the User, or reach the treasure first.] She leaned her pointed ear toward Presario as it added more information. [The treasure is this way,] Zara said, swimming off. 

[Hey, wait for me!] Michael hurried after her. He came up beside her. [You look pretty good,] he commented, a broad grin spreading across his face, allowing his many pointed teeth to show. 

[Well, you look pretty bad.] 

[Will I forever be the bitmap of your lame jokes?] 

Zara ignored him. [Now, we both have special abilities that come with our game characters.] Michael began to look interested. [You can create whirlpools and electrical currents.] 

Michael smirked and raised a hand, about to try out his new powers. Zara, rolling her eyes, reached out and grabbed his arm. [Not now!] she said sternly, glad of the dark scales that hid the blush she felt flooding her cheeks. [Your power is limited, so you'll want to save it for the User. Besides,] she continued, releasing his arm, [you have lousy aim and I would prefer not to get electrocuted.] 

[Well, Miss Pessimistic, what can _you_ do?] 

[Let's see…] Zara examined the display on her keytool's globe. [I can shoot explosive spines with my trident, and generate piranha mines.] 

[Piranha mines?] 

Zara didn't get to answer. The User's nefarious submarine had appeared in the distance. [There's the User!] 

[Got him!] Flipping his tail, Michael sped ahead and created a whirlpool in the User's path. The ship was helplessly caught in it and smashed into the ocean floor. Michael pumped a fist in victory. [Yes!] 

[Wait, the game hasn't ended yet.] Zara glanced down at her keytool. [Uh oh.] 

Michael looked troubled. [It's never a good thing when you say that.] 

She looked back to her friend, her face aghast. [The User has 15 lives.] 

[Here comes his second life!] Michael shouted a warning as the User reanimated. 

~~~~~~~~~~

They darted behind a large rock. [How many is that?] he asked wearily. 

[Six down, nine to go.] 

Michael leaned against the rock, putting a hand on his head. He rarely felt so exhausted. [I don't know if I can last much long. I think I'm out of power.] 

[Me too.] Looking into his face, Zara reached out and placed a clawed hand on his shoulder. [Maybe it would be better if you were to stay behind until I win the game,] she said gently. 

He narrowed his eyes at her and stuck out his bottom lip, almost growling. [I am _not_ leaving you!] He abruptly turned and peered over the rock. [The User's heading this way!] 

She sighed. _I'm supposed to be protecting him, not the other way around._ With a flip of her tail, she moved out from behind their hiding place. Michael followed close behind as she explained their new plan of action. [If we can't defeat the User, then we must beat him to the treasure.] 

[Good idea.] Michael glanced behind him. [Uhhhh…Zara? The User's catching up with us!] 

[Keep going!] They were so close… She looked up as the submarine sped overhead. _Oh, User…_

Zara stopped, and looked back at Michael, her shoulders sagging. Her expression was one he never would have thought he might see on her face: utter and complete despair. [I'm sorry it had to end this way,] she said mournfully, her eyes cast downward. 

[Zara, I-] 

A sudden deafening crash forced them both to turn back to the User. A small, fishlike vessel had collided with the User's submarine. Both ships floated listlessly, powerless. 

Zara snapped back into her Guardian programming. [Come on!] she said, swimming straight for the treasure. 

They passed the two lethargic ships. Inside the one with the apparently suicidal pilot, they could see a sprite holding her arm, her face crumpled in pain. Another sprite in a form very similar to Zara's and Michael's appeared, swimming up to the ship and looking inside. He had dark red scales, and eyes of two different colors. 

[Get to the treasure before the User comes back to full power!] His tone was very authoritative, the voice of a leader. The stranger then turned back to wounded one, presumably anxious about the other's condition. 

[Who was that?] Michael asked as he and Zara reached the treasure. 

[I don't know. We'll find out when the game ends.] She looked back at the two ships once more, then reached out and touched the treasure.


	2. Outsiders

**Chapter II:  
Outsiders**

The game cube lifted. Zara and Michael fell several feet to the ground. Zara landed on her feet with catlike agility, thanks to her Guardian reflexes. Michael landed upon his rear end, with all the grace of a rock. 

"Ouch," he muttered as Zara pulled him to his feet. 

Zara opened a vidwindow, connecting to the Medical Wing of the Principal Office. "Norton, please send a Medivac to the Desktop sector, District Nine. I think we may have some wounded." 

"Yes, ma'am," he replied curtly, closing the vidwindow. 

"Hey, I don't think I need medical attention," Michael said, rubbing his now slightly bruised bitmap. 

She could barely restrain herself from clobbering him. "Not you, you basic ignoramus! I think at least one of the sprites we saw in the game was injured. Where are they, anyway?" She spotted the two sprites standing several hundred feet away, waiting expectantly. Zara started off toward them at a brisk walk. 

Michael hurried after her. "Are sure we should even be talking to them?" His voice rose higher in pitch as he became more anxious. "What if they're dangerous? What if they're wanted for murder? What if-" 

"Michael! You are being way too paranoid. I'm a Guardian. It's my duty to protect this system, but that doesn't mean I attack every stranger that shows up!" 

Michael was silenced. He sulked for a little bit as he and Zara drew nearer to the outlanders. He broke his silence with a question. 

"If the sector was empty when the games cube landed, where did they come from?" 

He had his friend's attention. Zara peered at him inquisitively. Just when she thought she had him figured him out… "I never thought about that. You make a good point." 

"I do? Then-" 

"Don't push your luck." 

As the Guardian and the merchant approached, Zara could see the male sprite was much larger that she; she estimated he had a least two feet on her. And he had the build of a tank. A pale scar ran across a yellow, almost mechanical-looking eye, contrasting with the other violet one. 

His companion was a tall, lithe female, though she only came up to his neck. She had a exotic beauty about her, and Zara had to look twice when she thought she spied fins on the back of the woman's arms and legs. They both looked to be nearly the same age as Zara, twenty, or maybe a little younger. She noticed the male had a black and gold icon, while the female had a normal data sprite icon, white and black. The red and yellow dog standing protectively in front of them laid back its ears as she drew near. 

Zara stopped in front of them, with Michael standing silent a little ways behind her. Planting her staff point down, she tried to look authoritative. 

"This is System Compaq, and I am Zara Mavis, Guardian 538. State your names and formats." 

The male spoke first. "I'm Matrix…" He seemed to hesitate for a moment. "No format." Matrix turned to the female who leaned on him for support. 

"I'm AndrAIa." She extended her good arm and Zara shook it carefully, noting that the young woman had failed to give her format. AndrAIa motioned to the dog, which was eyeing the Guardian uncertainly. "And that's Frisket." 

Before she could be warned, Zara bent down to pet Frisket on his head. The dog didn't attack immediately as expected, surprising both Matrix and AndrAIa. He instead wagged his tail, and licked the Guardian's hand. Seeing their puzzled expressions, Zara stood up, wiping the dog slobber on the pants of her uniform. "I guess I'm just a dog person," she said, smiling. She glanced up to the sky, shielding her eyes against the bright daylight, searching. "The Medivac should be arriving right about…now." A squarish, helicopter-like vehicle with a red cross on its side landed a little ways away from the four sprites. 

Zara motioned for AndrAIa and Matrix to get in, but he paused, looking doubtfully at the Guardian. She sighed, "AndrAIa needs medical attention, and you probably do too. Go on, you'll both be fine. I'll meet you there." 

The two climbed inside, followed by Frisket, growling at the paramedic attendants, and Zara slid the door closed. The Medivac pulled away. 

Turning, she found Michael staring wistfully after the rapidly disappearing Medivac. "Michael?" she said, waving a hand in front of his face. "Compaq to Michael…" Frustrated, she brought her heavy boot down his foot. 

"Ow!" Michael began hopping about frantically, clutching his foot. "What'd you do that for?!?" 

Zara grinned mischievously, leaning on her staff. "Your processor seemed to be…elsewhere." 

"Um…well…" 

She straightened and decompressed her zipboard. "Maybe it would be a good idea if you focused your attentions on some other victim. Matrix looks like the jealous type…and I hope you noticed how much bigger he is than you." 

He crossed his arms and glared at her. "And I think **you** should mind your own business." A beeping was emitting from the compressed organizer on his belt. He maximized it, and a barrage of frantic shouting discharged. 

"Compton!" an angry and slightly static voice shouted. "You were supposed to be down here a CYCLE ago!! What in the Net have you been doing?!?" 

"Oh, crap, I was on my way to the docks to pick up a shipment when I got caught in that game." Zara rolled her eyes as Michael decompressed his own zipboard and zipped off. "Catch you later, Zara!" he yelled over his shoulder. 

"Michael! Watch-" She winced as Michael zipped smack into a tree. 

"I'm all right!" 

Smiling and shaking her head, she turned and headed for the Principal Office. 

~~~~~~~~~~

"Is she going to be okay?" 

The medic binome, Norton, looked up at the sprite that towered over him. "Uhhh…yes. Her broken arm will take a second to mend, though." He noticed a large cut on Matrix's arm that the paramedics had overlooked. "Would you like me to take a look at that?" he asked, gesturing to it. 

"No, it's all-right," Matrix replied, gruffly. 

Norton shrugged. "Fine. Your friend is in the next room." The binome led the way through a pair of swinging doors, into an examination room. AndrAIa was perched up on a metal table, waiting patiently while a sprite nurse finished putting the thick cast on her arm. She smiled warmly at Matrix as he walked in, closely followed by Frisket. The dog stopped outside the door, and plopped down, resuming guard duty. The nurse, terrified by the huge green warrior, quickly fled, along with Norton. 

Sighing, AndrAIa hopped off the table and walked over to Matrix. She held up her cast for his inspection. "See? Perfectly fine. Doesn't hurt at all." She lowered her arm, and winced in pain. Matrix raised an eyebrow. 'Well, mostly it doesn't," she admitted. 

She spied the cut on his arm, which was still slowly oozing blood. "Why didn't you let them fix that up?" 

"It doesn't hurt." 

AndrAIa experimentally jabbed his arm. 

"Ouch!" Matrix exclaimed, pulling his arm back. "Okay, maybe I should get it looked at." 

The game sprite glanced about the empty room. "Well, we can either wait for someone to come back or go looking for them. You still need to work on your people skills; you're still bad about scaring people off." 

A small grin appeared on the renegade's face, the first of which AndrAIa hadn't seen for a long time. She smiled back, "But at least we're alone for the moment." 

He pulled her closer and gently tipped her chin back for a kiss. 

The swinging doors burst open as Zara strode through, carefully avoiding stepping on Frisket. Started, Matrix and AndrAIa quickly pulled apart. 

_Uh oh…_ "Uh, am I interrupting something?" Zara asked cautiously, preparing to flee. Matrix was scowling at her, and, to say the least, he looked angry. 

"No, it's all right," said AndrAIa, stepping away from Matrix. She smiled warmly at the other woman. 

Matrix sighed inwardly, trying hard not to glare at his lover. He could see that look of hers, the one she got when got friendly with the locals. It was the last thing they needed, since they would be moving on as soon as her arm was healed. 

Zara decided it would be best to ignore the strange expression on the young man's face. As Matrix rubbed his well muscled arm, the Guardian caught site of the long cut, which was still bleeding sluggishly. 

She moved closer, studying it for a moment. Matrix glowered at the pink-skinned sprite again, but she seemed unflustered. Zara turned and opened a spartan white cabinet behind her. "I'm surprised Norton didn't see to that," she said to Matrix as she began to rummage through the cabinet. "Damn this shortness," she muttered to herself as she climbed up on the counter to reach something in the back. 

"Aha!" Zara hopped back down, holding bandages in one hand and a jar of salve in the other. "Now let me bind that up for you." 

Matrix's bionic eye began to spin as his annoyance grew. He started to say something that would be undoubtedly unpleasant, but was stopped by a sharp poke in his ribs by AndrAIa. "Enzo, let her see to it," she said quietly, yet sternly, "You were sick for a whole second last time you ignored a cut and it got infected." 

Zara watched this whole affair with great interest. _They sure seem to be made for each other…_

She stepped back to Matrix, evidently not alarmed, as most people were. He's even bigger up close… She unscrewed the top of the jar and gently rubbed some of the salve on his cut, trying not to hurt him. Zara was surprised her touch caused nothing to stir within her, no embarrassing blush to surge up her cheeks. I wonder why…he certainly doesn't lack in the looks department… After wiping off her hands, she gently placed a bandage on his arm and bound it in place. "There, all done," she said, replacing the jar back in the cabinet. 

The young Guardian turned back to the two sprites. "Do you wanna get something to eat? I'll buy." 

Matrix merely shrugged, allowing AndrAIa to speak for them both. "We'd love to." She looked down at her cast. "But I don't think I can fly a zipboard with this; it'll throw me totally off balance." 

"Well, would you mind sharing a zipboard with Matrix?" 

"Not at all." 

"Okay then, I'll be right back." Zara jogged out the door and reappeared a few moments later, zipboard in hand. "Here you go," she said, tossing it to Matrix, who reached out and easily caught it. She looked back to the red and yellow dog, waiting patiently at the door, lazily wagging his tail. "I think Frisket will have to stay on the ground, as long as he doesn't bite anyone." 

AndrAIa laughed. "I think he'll behave." 

Zara then led them through the maze of corridors that made up the Principal Office and out into the bright afternoon air. She decompressed her zipboard, hopping on. Matrix set his own down, and got on, while AndrAIa stepped up carefully behind, wrapping her good arm around his waist. He smiled slightly as he felt the warmth of his lover's body against his own.


	3. Memories

**Chapter III:  
Memories**

"Well, here we are!" Zara declared enthusiastically as she stepped off their zipboards. The three sprites and one dog stood in front of a low building in the Gravis sector. A gigantic sign informed visitors that the proprietor's name was Phineas. 

They compressed their zipboards and walked inside. Frisket plopped down out front, as naturally as breathing. As Zara walked in, she was greeted by a chorus of greeting and salutations. She returned each welcome with a smile and a wave, and then led Matrix and AndrAIa to a quiet booth in a corner. 

Matrix looked about him as he sat down on the red vinyl seat next to AndrAIa. The restaurant was filled with sprites and binomes, all talking at once. It was almost overwhelming. This is so uncannily like Dot's… The thought drudged up unwanted memories. _Dot…_ He sighed and rested hi elbows on the table, his face settling into its usual grim expression. 

Zara looked at AndrAIa questioningly, but the other woman shook her head. She shrugged and called a waitress over. _I wonder what happened to them…_

Their waitress practically bounced over to their booth, bubbling over with energy. She was tall, with pale yellow skin, and curly red hair. Her dark green eyes were bright and joyful. Her name tag identified her as 'Shira'. "Hi, can I take your order?" she asked jubilantly. 

"An energy shake, please," said Zara. She glanced at AndrAIa. 

"One shake miss," she said pleasantly. 

Matrix remained silent, but then let out a muffled 'ow' as AndrAIa kicked him with the pointed toe of her boot. He muttered something inaudible. 

"'Cuse me?" asked Shira. 

"Same as the ladies," Matrix replied gruffly. 

The waitress seemed unaffected as she typed the order into her notepad. "And who will be paying?" 

Zara handed her some units, smiling warmly. "Here you go." 

Shira noticed the large tip she had received. "Back in a nano, Guardian!" With a bright smile, Shira turned and made her way to another table. 

Zara noticed Matrix glaring momentarily at the young waitress as she bounced about, taking orders. His expression clearly stated 'I hate people like that'. Then he turned to focus his attention on a small stain in the middle of the table. 

"What's with you?" Zara asked. "You're worse company than a virus." 

Matrix shifted his troubled gaze to her face. "You wouldn't understand." 

_User, what is **wrong** this guy?_ "Oh, and how would you know?!" Zara demanded, balling her hands into fists. The skin on her face had flushed a darker shade as she grew angry, making her spots stand out. "You hardly know me!" 

Matrix started to stand up, his targeting eye spinning, but AndrAIa kept a firm grip on his arm. With a sigh, he thumped back down onto the seat, the vinyl squeaking in protest. 

Shira bounded over to their over to their booth, carefully balancing three energy shakes on a tray. She energetically plunked them down on the table. "Enjoy!" She spun on her heel and walked off. 

Matrix continued to scowl at the Guardian. "Why do you care, anyway?" He viciously stabbed a straw into his cup. 

Zara wrapped her hands around her shake and sighed heavily. "Because…because I know you're a Guardian, or at least you once were." 

He stared at her for a moment, then noisily took a sip through his straw. He didn't respond. 

AndrAIa looked at the female Guardian thoughtfully. "How did you know En- Matrix is a Guardian?" 

Zara rested her head on her fist. "Well, most Guardians can recognize a peer, no matter what rank they are. Matrix has a gold and black icon and a damaged keytool. And while the two of you were being attended to at the infirmary, I did a little…research." 

AndrAIa raised a questioning eyebrow. 

Zara shrugged. "It's not every megacycle Compaq gets a pair like you two, especially since this system doesn't have direct access to the Net." She took a sip of her shake. "Anyway, I found a few vague references to you in a several systems; the reports mainly said that two sprites of unknown origin had arrives in a game cube, helped out, then left with the next game." 

At this point, Matrix looked up from his shake. He looked ever so slightly less aggravated. "And?" 

"I thought you might be a Guardian, but I wasn't sure. So I checked the listings in the Guardian Archive. I found only one first-level cadet named Enzo Matrix, registered when he was eleven hours old. But the strange thing is that he was recorded as Guardian 452." 

Matrix snorted. "So?" 

AndrAIa decided it was not in her best interest to say anything. 

Now Zara glared at him. "I _know_ Guardian 452, and you're not him." 

Started, Matrix's harsh expression lifted, and his eyes widened. "You…you know Bob?" 

Zara smiled a little. She thought nothing would ever change his angry face. "Yes…and I'm guessing he transferred some of his own code to your own to make you a level one cadet." 

"Yeah." He sank back against the seat. "Bob was our Guardian." 

_Oh, no…_ "Was?" Zara asked anxiously. 

Matrix looked to AndrAIa, who squeezed his arm gently. She sighed and continued on Matrix's behalf. "A portal to the Web had been opened in our system, Mainframe. Bob enlisted the help of two viruses residing there to help close the portal. But just before the operation was completed" - Matrix sadly hung his head - "one of them threw Bob through the portal." 

Zara's hand tightened around her cup. "Oh, Bob," she whispered quietly, as she blinked hard to keep tears from spilling forth. "I had no idea…" He can't be… 

Suddenly she lifted her head. "He has to be alive." 

Matrix started to say something, but the other Guardian held up a hand to stop him. "Bob was an instructor at the Academy before he left to be a System Guardian. He taught a class on game survival. He's one of the best Guardians the Academy has known. If Bob can survive the Academy and the games, surely he can survive the ." 

Matrix's face brightened. "You know, I bet you're right." 

AndrAIa beamed warmly at Zara. _And just when I thought he had given up all hope…_ She reached over and placed her hand on Matrix's. "I'm sure Bob is trying his hardest to get back home, the same as us." 

They were silent for a moment, then Zara spoke. "There's something I don't understand…" She paused to slurp down some more of her shake. "If you were registered when you were eleven, which was about an hour ago, how is that you're nearly my age now?" 

Matrix appeared strained for a moment, then took a deep breath and calmed himself. "I'll start from the beginning. With Bob e-mailed to the , I was left as the only Guardian in Mainframe." He noticed AndrAIa's hand was pleasantly warm on his own. "Mouse, our resident hacker, had converted AndrAIa's and Frisket's icons to those of normal data sprites so they could help me in the games. At one point Andi and I were playing I game. I lost it, and my eye. We were forced to convert to game sprite format to avoid nullification." He sighed and rubbed his scar, which had started to itch. "Now we game hop from system to system, looking for home and a port to the ." He looked down at the table for a moment. 

_Oh great, I've depressed him all over again…_ "How is that you can change to games sprite format?" 

The other Guardian looked up, grateful for the change of subject. "AndrAIa is a game sprite. I met in her a game, and she escaped with me when the game ended by adding her icon to my own. When Mouse converted her icon, she used mine as an guide. So she also added the ability to change to game sprite mode to my icon, and Frisket's. But what we didn't know is that we you play a game in game sprite format, you play in game time, which runs much faster than regular time. Since we spent most of our time in game sprite format, we aged much faster normal." 

The look of astonishment on Zara's face was quite easy to see. "That is some incredible story. Bob had told me some tall tales, but that just beats them all." 

Matrix smiled slightly. "Speaking of, how do you know Bob?" 

Zara tried to ignore the color creeping into her cheeks. "When I was but a fledgling at the GA, lost and confused, I met Bob. He was five hours ahead of me, yet he took me under his wing and showed me the ropes." She played idly with her now empty cup. "He became a good friend, and still was when he was assigned to Mainframe. I haven't gotten a chance to talk to him since." 

"Maybe we should-" AndrAIa started to say, but she was interrupted by a large yawn. "Oh, excuse me," she said, covering up her mouth her hand. 

Zara smiled. "You were saying?" 

"Maybe Matrix and I should get a room somewhere. I feel like I might drop." 

Matrix started to argue, but was also interrupted as his mouth gaped in a huge yawn, which he vainly tried to cover up. 

"I'm guessing you're tired too," Zara said. "But you don't have to go to a hotel. There are guest rooms in the Principal Office, and I'm sure Maxell, our Command.com, will let you use them." 

AndrAIa smiled. "That sounds just fine." She pushed Matrix so that she they could get out of the booth and they followed Zara outside. She leaned on green-skinned warrior's arm. "I'm so tired," she said softly. 

Looking back at the other two as they zipped back to the Principal Office, Zara sighed. Her heart ached. _Would I have someone like that…_

~~~~~~~~~~

AndrAIa rolled over as she felt someone sit down on her bed. "What is it, Matrix?" she asked softly. 

"I couldn't sleep." 

She saw his large form at the edge of her bed. Pulling off her sheets, she crawled over to sit next to him. "Neither could I." 

He turned to look at her. "I thought you were tired." 

AndrAIa rested her head on his shoulder. The weight of her head and the softness of her hair comforted him. "Yeah, but now I can't seem to get to sleep." 

He reached over and took her hand in his. "Andi, do you think we'll ever get home?" 

The game sprite sighed. She couldn't tell him that they'd be home soon and everything would be all right. "I don't know, lover," she said simply. 

Matrix laid back on the bed, pulling her down with him. His feet hung over the edge. His hands found her slender waist as her arms wrapped themselves about his neck. 

"Why couldn't you sleep?" he asked. 

She nuzzled her face into his neck. "I was thinking." 

"About what?" He started playing with her hair, as he admired curves of her body in the darkness. 

"Us." 

He swallowed. "What about us?" 

The dim light glinted of her fins as she pushed herself up to look into his face. "You know I love you, Enzo." 

"Don't call me-" He was stopped in mid-sentence as she pressed her lips against his. 

Finally, she pulled away, slightly out of breath. Matrix began to protest, but she put a finger to his lips, silencing him. "Not tonight," she whispered. 

"No good night kiss?" 

She smiled and kissed Matrix once more, then pushed him off her bad and toward to door. "Good night, lover," she called softy. 

In the doorway, he smiled and whispered back, "'Night, Andi." He eased the door shut.


	4. Homeward Bound

**

Chapter IV:  
Homeward Bound

**

AndrAIa woke to the warmth of sunlight on her face. She sat up and ran a hand through her emerald hair. 

She heard a loud thump from the next room followed by from the next room as Matrix woke up and fell out his bed. She giggled to herself and waited while he walked down the hall and opened the door to her room. 

"Rude awakening?" she asked as he plopped down next to her and kissed her cheek. The beard he had started growing tickled her skin. "Yeah," he said, running a hand through his dark green hair. "I always have trouble sleeping in a new place." He looked slightly troubled for a moment, but shook his head as if banishing some unwanted thought. 

AndrAIa quickly changed the subject. "Let's get down to the infirmary so I can get this thing off." She held up her cast for emphasis. 

"Sure," Matrix agreed. "Then maybe we can get some breakfast." He took her hand and pulled the game sprite off the bed toward the door. He tapped his icon, changing from the shorts and sleeveless shirt he had worn to bed to his normal outfit. He smiled as her as they headed out the door. Smiling back, AndrAIa clicked her own icon, shifting from her oversized t-shirt to her regular skin-tight gear. 

~~~~~~~~~~

A sleepy-eyed Zara greeted AndrAIa, Matrix, and Frisket as they exited the Medical Wing of the Principal Office. "Oh, I see that you got your cast off." Zara held up a small hand to cover up a rather large yawn. "Sorry, I'm not a morning person," she apologized. 

She stretched her arms out, much like a cat. "I'm gonna meet someone for java. Care to join me?" 

A grin stretched across Matrix's face. "Sure!" 

Zara could not hide her astonishment. Matrix was not the first person she thought would have responded so affably to such an invitation. She looked at AndrAIa, but the other woman simply shrugged her shoulders and smiled. _Every time I think I have him figured out, he proves me wrong…_

She felt a presence behind her, and she swiveled around, coming face to face with Michael. Or more like face to shoulder. "How many times have I told you not to sneak up on me?" Zara asked. "You know it doesn't work." 

Michael grinned. "Can't blame a guy for a trying." 

Zara turned back to the other two sprites. "Allow me to introduce my friend Michael Compton; he's a software merchant. Michael, meet Matrix and AndrAIa." 

Michael flashed his trademark grin, and shook AndrAIa's hand. "Hi." 

"Hello, Michael." 

The merchant approached Matrix and stretched forth his hand. "Welcome to Compaq, Matrix." The renegade arched an eyebrow and shook the offered hand. Frisket growled, and Michael backed away hastily. 

"I thought we were going to meet at Phineas's for java," Zara said to Michael. 

"I decided to find you instead," answered Michael. 

Zara shrugged. "Do you want me to get you another zipboard?" she asked AndrAIa. 

"Could you? I think I can use one now." 

Zara nodded and darted back inside. She came back out and handed AndrAIa her zipboard. 

The game sprite decompressed it and hopped on. "Are we going to that restaurant we to yesterday?" she asked. 

"Yep." Zara stepped onto her zipboard. 

AndrAIa's face erupted into an impish grin. "How about a race?" 

"I love to race!" Michael and Zara exclaimed simultaneously. They looked at each other for a moment, then burst out laughing. 

They all looked at Matrix. He nodded in agreement. "You asked for it," he warned them. 

The guys decompressed their zipboards and got on. "Ready?" asked AndrAIa. The others nodded. "Go!" 

The four sprites took off, while the dog ran along below. AndrAIa quickly gained a gigantic lead as they speed through Compaq, as several onlookers paused to watch them pass. 

As they sped along, Michael watched Zara, taking advantage of that fact that she was using all her concentration to focus on the race, oblivious to him. The toned muscles in her legs flexed as she deftly maneuvered her zipboard. Her long coppery hair flowed out behind her like ribbons of silk. She let out a whoop of excitement as she passed him on his right. He accelerated in an attempt to catching up, nearly running into a low bridge. 

AndrAIa arrived first, grinning triumphantly, followed by Zara, Matrix, Frisket, and lastly Michael. "You're really good!" Zara said to the game sprite as she buckled her zipboard back on her belt. 

"Thanks!" AndrAIa said cheerfully. "What happened to you, Michael?" 

"Yeah, Mr. I'm-such-a-big-shot," Zara said snidely. 

"I got distracted" was his simple answer. 

Zara through up her hands in an exaggerated display of exasperation, grabbed Michael's arm, and began to haul him inside. 

The sky darkened and the voice of the System Administrator boomed across Compaq: "Warning, incoming game. Warning, incoming game." 

Zara looked up into the sky. "It's coming down right on top of us!" She darted inside in the restaurant, yelling, "Everyone get out!" Several sprites and binomes ran out, took one look up, and fled. 

"There we go," Zara said, coming back out. "Just us now." She looked at Michael. "You gonna stay?" 

He eyed her, grinning. "And miss out on this? No thanks." He looked up at the game cube coming down on them. "But I wish I had gotten my java." 

~~~~~~~~~~

The group of four stood together in the middle of a desert landscape. A broad river ran nearby, and the green blur far off on the other bank suggested the presence of a forest. Gray foreboding clouds moved sluggishly over head. 

Zara reached for Presario and began to extend it when she heard Matrix command, "Glitch: Game stats." She watched as he studied the keytool's display. He narrowed his brows in confusion. "Glitch says this game is called…The Wrath of Isis." 

"What kind of a game is that?" asked Michael. 

Matrix shrugged his massive shoulders, then double clicked his icon. "Reboot!" He shivered involuntarily as the green column of game energy rippled over him and disappeared. 

Zara's mouth dropped, Michael looked as though he was unsuccessfully trying not to laugh, and AndrAIa merely smiled smugly. 

Matrix raised an eyebrow. "What?" 

When he only got stifled chortles instead of an answer, he finally looked down at his game character. His skin, now fur, was still its normal green color, but now was adorned with tiger-like stripes, matching his good eye. His normal outfit had been replaced with a ragged dark green vest and blue pants with tattered ends. Matrix reached instinctively down to Gun, but found instead a long broad-sword instead. "Random…" 

AndrAIa giggled. "I think you missed something." 

"Huh?" Matrix turned around, and discovered that two feathery wings had sprouted from his back, the same color as his fur and tipped in violet. _This is a first…_ A tail had also appeared. "This is just too much…" 

He heard more sniggers. "Well, I'd like to see what the _rest_ of you look like." 

"Fine," said Zara. She and the others tapped their icons, rebooting into characters similar to Matrix's. 

Zara had bronze colored fur with pink stripes. She wore a purple, strange looking sleeveless top, and a skirt of some kind over shorts. A bow was in her hand, and a quiver of arrows at her aide. She craned her neck, examining her velvety wings. "Users are so strange…" 

"Alphanumeric!" Michael had taken on the form of a silver creature with black and gray stripes. He hefted his large battle ax, and his emerald sparkled as he scrutinizing his extra appendages. 

AndrAIa looked even more dramatic than the others. Her fur was white lined with blue stripes. Her green hair had been replaced by short red tresses, tipped in blue. Instead of her trident, she held a barbed spear in her grip. Her long sleeved top and slit skirt revealed much of her lithe figure. 

Matrix could feel his mouth drop open, and forced himself to close it. Using a fair amount of will, he looked away and bent down to click Frisket's icon. As the game energy disappeared, the once-dog uncertainly at his new body. He was now a red and gold tiger. 

The renegade sighed. "Well, if we're done gawking at each other, let's get on with it." He examined Glitch's display once more. "In order to win the game, the User must collect the six pieces of the Oracle Staff, assemble it, then place it in the temple of Osiris." He looked up at the others. "All we have to do is stop him." 

"Oh, is that all?" Michael muttered under his breath. 

Matrix eyed him. "You say something?" 

"Come on, let's get going!" Michael exclaimed. He unfolded his silvery wings and flapped them, rising into the air. The others followed him upwards. 

Flapping her own wings to keep balanced, Zara took Presario out and looked over it for a moment. "The User's this way." She turned and headed for a large pyramid structure in the distance. Matrix, AndrAIa, and Michael followed her closely while Frisket ran along below. 

Soon enough, they spotted a creature running toward the pyramid, carrying a staff in one hand. 

"Damn, he's already put together the staff," Matrix said angrily. "We have to take him out." He tilted his left wing, going into a steep dive. 

He landed agilely on the ground next to the User, and found Frisket already attacking. The User, with its fog-like face, did not look frightened in the least bit. Matrix raised his sword for final blow. 

Matrix gasped as a cold something grabbed his ankle with a steel grip. A hand had reached up out of the ground itself and fastened to his ankle. As he watched in fascinated horror, the undeleted creature pulled the rest of its body out of the sand, clothed in decaying wrappings. It grinned ferociously at the Guardian as the thing began to pull him down 

Something swished through the air and the hand of the zombie was removed from the rest of its body. The creature looked in surprise at its severed hand then crumbled into dust as it head was chopped off. Matrix looked up to see Michael standing over him, welding his ax. He reached down and helped pull the Guardian up. 

"Thanks," Matrix said as he got to his feet, pulling one clawed foot out of the sand. 

"No problem." 

They heard a strange scratching noise and turned to find more zombies popping out of the ground like daisywheels. The two sprites spread their wings and rose into the air to avoid the overzealous undeleted beings. 

AndrAIa and Zara flew higher to join the merchant turned game player and the Guardian. "Will Frisket be all right?" asked the game sprite as she hovered beside Matrix. 

Down below, Frisket patrolled the entrance to the pyramid. The User could not get past him without losing a valuable body part, and even the zombies were afraid to approach the sleek tiger. 

Zara grinned. "I think he can hold his own." She heard the hissing of a projectile, and ducked as a large rock came within inches of her head. "Hey!" 

Most of the zombies had begun hurling at the sprites anything they could get their hands on, while others were attacking Frisket. Meanwhile, the User himself had approached dark doorway of the pyramid, bearing the Oracle Staff. An arrow embedded itself in the sand less than a foot from the User, and another struck the staff, knocking it from his hand as Zara swooped down to grab it. 

The two struggled for a nano, then Zara raised her legs and pushed off the User, wrenching the Staff from his grasp. She rose up, and with a mischievous smirk on her face, snapped the Staff in half. 

With a menacing snarl, the User reached up and grabbed her ankle, slamming her down onto the sand. Zara struggled to slash at him with her claws, but he held her down. Numerous hands erupted from then sand, wrapping around her ankles, waist, and wrists. She tried to scream for help, but foul smelling hand reached up and clamped itself over her mouth. 

She heard a growl, and Frisket attacked, ripping away appendages with brute force. Zara felt a hand pull her up, and found AndrAIa helping her to her feet. 

"Are you okay?" AndrAIa asked. 

"Just a little sandy." She glanced around and saw Matrix and Michael hacking away at zombies. "Think they can take of themselves?" 

AndrAIa replied with a grin. "Sure." 

They turned on the User, as a steady rain began to fell from the steel gray sky. 

~~~~~~~~~~

The others joined them as AndrAIa held her spear carefully at the User's neck. She glanced at Matrix, and an understanding beyond that of words passed between the two. The game sprite turned to Zara. "Matrix and I have decided to leave with the game." 

Zara nodded. "You're sure you're ready to leave?" 

Matrix nodded. His now wet hair was plastered against his forehead. "But…when we find Bob, I'll be sure to tell him about you." Laughter glinted in his good eye. He reached forward and shook her hand; his grip smothered hers. "Thanks." 

"No, thank you." Zara grinned as she flicked a wet strand of hair out of her face for the nth time. "You two made my job a bit more interesting for a time." She faced AndrAIa and warmly shook the other woman's hand. "I hope, by chance somehow, we will meet again." The Guardian then leaned forward and whispered, "If Matrix doesn't keep you too busy." 

AndrAIa blushed, though it was hard to see under her white fur. "We'll see…" 

Michael considered shaking AndrAIa's hand also, but realized it was not the best thing to do under the gaze of Matrix. And he thought even better of saying something to the towering Guardian. 

AndrAIa gestured to Matrix. "Care to do the honors?" 

"Gladly." His sword chopped through the neck of the dog-faced User with a sickening thunk. 

"Game over…" 

Matrix raised his wings so that AndrAIa was slightly protected from the rain. They both raised their hands in farewell, then disappeared as the game cube lifted. 

Michael turned to look at Zara. "This has been an interesting few megacycles."


	5. Avalon

**Chapter V:  
Avalon**

_Four minutes later…_

Compaq was in chaos. As soon as the attack had begun, Command.com Maxell has begun shipping off citizens to neighboring systems through the emergency portal rooms. None one knew who had led the assault, only that because of it, Compaq had plunged into the utmost turmoil. Whole sectors were going off-line, and debris and the bodies of the fallen littered the streets. 

The portal rooms had been destroyed in the last air attack, fortunately after the majority of civilians had been evacuated. Only the Guardian, military personnel, and Maxell had remained behind, in a last hope to repel the invaders, whoever they might be. 

Now, the Guardian found, according to the scans of her keytool Presario, she and one other were the only living beings left besides the attackers. 

Zara despairingly sought out the other. He or she was located on the roof of an office building, unconscious, but alive. As she neared on her zipboard, she recognized the silvery skin and dark hair: Michael. 

She stepped down and knelt next to him shaking him awake. 

Green eyes slowly opened and peered at her. "Zara?" 

She looked at him for a moment, then sent a hand flying against his face, slapping him. 

"Ow! What'cha do that for?!?" 

Zara stood, pulling him to his feet. "Michael, you idiot! What are you still doing here?!? You were supposed to leave with the rest of the non-military citizens!" 

He glared at her. "Look, Zara, I don't know what you're thinking, but I wanted to help. I didn't stay around just to see buildings blow…" His voice lost him as his vision cleared and he took in the devastation around them. 

The sky had darkened to a sickly gray color. Several sectors had already sunk into the sea, and another one collapsed as they watched. Nearly every building was pitted with the craters of bombs and antiaircraft fire. The smell of deletion and anguish hung in the air. 

"Oh, User…" Michael visibly paled. "This is worse than I ever imagined." He looked at her. "Are we…" 

"The last ones." 

"And the portal rooms?" 

"Totally destroyed." 

"Is there anyway we can leave?" 

"I don't know. The only place to go now is the Principal Office." 

He nodded. 

~~~~~~~~~~ 

The Guardian's heart ached in despair as they flew over her ravaged system. Who would do such a thing? Can even a virus desire absolute genocide? She sighed and flew onwards as the Principal Office came into view. It had taken on a vast amount of damage. Its once mighty spire was now just a jagged turret, and large sections crumbled into piles of rubble. 

Abruptly, their zipboards jerked and began to float downwards. "The system is losing power," Zara said to Michael as they discarded their useless transportation. The two ran up the steps, watchful of every shadow. Michael picked up a cast off pistol for protection, since he carried no weapon of his own. 

"What are we going to do?" he asked as her followed her down a corridor. 

"I don't know yet," she replied quietly. 

They arrive at a sub-control room, near the front of the Principal Office. Each ran to a console, checking the system's status. 

Michael let out an agonized groan, and Zara joined him at his console. "What is it?" 

He spoke with a frigid certainty. "The core has reached an highly unstable level. We have little time remaining before we have a total meltdown and system crash." 

Zara reached over him, calling up reports and vidwindows. She inhaled sharply as she found what she was looking for. "There's only fifteen nanoseconds left." 

"What can we do?" Michael asked, his sturdy shoulders sagging. "We can't use the portal rooms." 

Zara's ethereal blue eyes filled with the despair that he had only seen in the game, when they had thought all was lost. "I…I…" She suddenly snapped her fingers. "Wait! There's an old Net transfer command around here, somewhere…" She rapidly began opening folders, searching. 

"Aha!" she said triumphantly, fishing the command out of a folder that looked like it hadn't seen the light of megacycle in hours. "But we need to get to the Principal Command console to use it." She grabbed Michael's hand and pulled him along as she ran down the hall. He would have been delighted to be so close to her, but that wasn't on his processor at the moment. 

He stumbled as his foot caught on something. A boot. "Wait!" he called to Zara. He turned back and found Maxell lying half out of a doorway. There was a deep gash in his side, and his body was surrounded by a puddle of his own blood. A look of permanent pain, or perhaps horror, was etched in his face. 

Zara's breath caught in her throat as she saw who it was. "Maxell…" She sighed and pulled Michael away from the corpse. 

"Eight nanoseconds until core meltdown," droned the pre-recorded voice of the System Administrator. 

They continued down the hall until she stopped at a large door and kicked it in. She rushed to the console that dominated one whole wall of the room, plugged the transfer command in, and furiously began typing. 

"Where are we going to go?" Michael asked quietly. 

"I'm going to try my own system." She stopped and pressed the Send button, but it only resulted in an error window, reading 'Error: System does not exist.' 

"Error my ASCII! This thing must be out of date." She began typing again, her fingers flying. 

"Seven nanoseconds until core meltdown." 

"Where else can we go?" 

"Before Matrix left, he gave me the Net address for Mainframe; he said to only use it in an emergency." She pressed the Send button again. A stable portal appeared in the center of the room. The system of Mainframe awaited just beyond the sphere's polished surface. They had only begun to move toward it when a voice called out at them from the shadows. 

"Don't go any further, Guardian!" 

Zara and Michael both spun around to see a figure in the doorway, swathed in darkness. "I thought I might find you here." The stranger's voice was most definitely female, smooth and melodious, with an almost hypnotic undertone. "Where is Guardian 452?" 

Zara stretched up to her full height, "I don't know what you're talking about," she said coldly. She began to edge toward the portal. _Is it Bob, or Matrix, that this woman is searching for?_

A pair of red eyes glowed angrily in the dark. "Where is Guardian 452?" she repeated. 

"Six nanoseconds until core meltdown." 

"I don't know who you are, or why you're searching for this Guardian, but won't bet getting anything from us." Zara stepped back so that she was within arm's reach of the portal. 

The woman stepped forward and they gasped. The woman was fiercely beautiful: her skin was a pale, icy blue; her long, straight hair was violet; and the large, red eyes glowed with an fanatic light. She was dressed in a sapphire form-fitting body suit, revealing only the white skin of her face. Yet there was something harsh in her startling beauty, something corrupt. 

Realization dawned on Michael. "Viral scum!" he shouted. "You're the one who attacked our system! Why?" 

Fangs glinted in the dim light as she spoke. "That is none of your concern." 

"Five nanoseconds until core meltdown." 

She stepped closer. "Where is the Guardian I seek?!" 

Zara pulled out Presario and pointed it at the woman. "Presario: energy shield!" A wall of golden light stretched across the room, coming in between the two sprites and the female virus. 

The woman let out a demonic screech as Zara and Michael dove through the portal and it snapped shut. 

~~~~~~~~~~

In the early light of a new megacycle, a shrill alarm shattered the serenity that had pervaded the Mainframe Principal Office during the night cycles. All personnel looked up from their work, wondering what it could mean. Dot Matrix ran to her workstation. 

"What is it, my child?" Phong rolled up beside her as she ran a system check. 

"I don't know…" 

The others joined the Command.com as the alarm continued to sound. "Honey, this better be important," said Mouse, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "I don't like for my beauty sleep to be interrupted." 

"There's a huge amount of energy building up…" Dot's forehead creased in worry. "Right here in the Principle Office!" 

A bright light filled the room, and they held up their hands to shield their eyes from the harsh glare. 

~~~~~~~~~~

Zara yelped in pain as she landed on her tailbone. She pushed herself up, groaning as she felt bruises forming. The Guardian turned to Michael, who had landed in a heap beside her. "You okay?" 

"Yeah…" He looked about him in slight confusion. "Uh, Zara?" 

She heard the shrill whir of guns powering up, and the distinct metallic hiss of a sword being unsheathed. Zara finally brought her gaze upwards to see a circle of sprites surrounding the two of them, all bearing weapons. 

~~~~~~~~~~

"State your names and formats," Bob commanded, gathering energy at his hands. The female, several hours his junior, got shakily to her feet and pulled her companion up beside her. The light momentarily glinted off her black and gold icon. _A Guardian?_ But he kept his guard up; she might be infected. 

She carefully scanned the small crowd of sprites around her, as if looking for someone she knew. He male companion looked around, apparently still stunned. Her luminous blue eyes stopped on Bob's face. _Why does she look so familiar?_

"Bob?" she asked tentatively, scrutinizing his face. _So many scars… What in the Net happened to him? And that armor…where did he pick **that** up?_

Suddenly, Bob's processor was flooded with the jumbled memories of his long ago time at the Academy; of a lost and friendless cadet… "Zara? Zara Mavis??" 

"It is you!" She ran over to him and practically jumped in his arms, wrapping her own arms around his neck. Startled, the glow of the energy buildup disappeared from his hands. He squeezed her back, then gently set her back down, as the others put away their weapons. 

"Where's Matrix?" she asked. 

"What? How do you-" 

Zara heard someone else call her name. "Zara?" 

She spun around and came face to chest with the renegade Matrix. He was even taller, if possible, than before, and he had developed a beard and mustache. 

His face lit up, and to everyone's surprise, including Zara's, he virtually picked the smaller Guardian up off her feet as he wrapped her in a bear hug. "Never thought I'd see you again," he said as he set Zara back on her feet. 

"Same here." 

AndrAIa stepped around Matrix and embraced Zara in a gleeful hug. "What are you doing here?" 

Zara's eyes fell to the floor, the color draining from her face. "Compaq was attacked by an unknown viral force. The majority of the citizens had been evacuated to neighboring systems through the emergency portal rooms. The core was on the verge of a meltdown when Michael and I escaped using an ancient Net transfer command. 

"But right as we were about to leave, the viral revealed herself. She claimed to be looking for Guardian 452." She looked at back at Bob, then at Matrix. "I'm guessing you all have some idea of what's going on here." 

She watched as Bob and an attractive green-skinned female that looked remarkably like Matrix exchanged looks. Bob turned back to Zara with a heavy sigh. "A supervirus has managed to infect the whole Guardian Collective except for you, Matrix, and me. She was searching for us because have the only clean Guardian protocols left. Prime Guardian Turbo is the only one resisting the infection, and is our contact in the Super Computer. This virus, Daemon, has gone through systems, gathering her armies, taking control of everyone and everything." 

The young Guardian's eyes widened as she stumbled backwards, nearly collapsing into Michael's arms as they both stared at Bob in horror. 

"How…how did this happen?" Zara whispered weakly. 

Bob simply shook his head. 

AndrAIa stepped forward and placed a hand on Zara's shoulder. "Come on, you need to rest. You and Michael have had a big shock." She gently but firmly guided her away, Michael at their heels. 

Dot looked from her brother to her Guardian, utterly confused. "You two have some explaining to do…" 

~~~~~~~~~~

Michael awoke to the sound of weeping. He sat up and listened intently. The sound paused for a moment, then began again. He opened the door to his room and peered out. The disquiet was drifting from a room down the hall. 

He crept down the corridor in bare feet, following the sobbing, and found himself at Zara's room. Michael eased the door open. "Zara? Are you all right?" 

She sat on her bed with her back to him, her knees folded up against her chest. She hadn't even changed her clothes. "Go away," she mumbled. 

Michael sat down next to her. "What happened?" 

Zara lifted up her face, wet with tears. "I asked AndrAIa to…to help me contact my home system, Arun." She drew in a ragged sigh, biting back a sob. "She told me…it was gone. There's nothing left." She could hold back the floodgates no longer, and collapsed as the tears spilled forth. 

Michael let her rest upon his chest, grief running down her pale face in rivers. He gently wrapped his arms about her shoulders, comforting warmth. He casually stroked her bronzed curls, as Zara moved her head to his shoulder, her tresses flowing about her in a bright waterfall. 

Soon, Michael felt her body relax as the tears ebbed and exhaustion took its toll on her small frame. He eased her down onto the bed and silently pulled the sheets over her. At the door, he paused and turned back to gaze at her once more, as she shifted in her sleep. Then he carefully, closed the door and headed back to his own room.


	6. The Ebbing of Time

**

Chapter VI:  
The Ebbing of Time

**

The towering roof of the Principal Office seemed to be the perfect place to come to be alone, to think private, personal thoughts. She peered over the edge on which she sat. The ground seemed so far down, and the figures moving about down below seemed so very small. For a moment, she considered jumping, but quickly dismissed the thought, pushing into the back of her processor, back where all her dark thoughts lurked. She would hurt too many friends and loves if she took that plunge…her deletion would amount to nothing. 

She sat and gripped the edge, digging her fingernails into the concrete. Thinking: of the ones she had lost…of the ones she had failed to protect…too many losses to eat away at her soul… 

Zara started as she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see AndrAIa standing behind her. "Oh, it's you…" Zara patted the space next to her. 

The game sprite settled herself down beside the Guardian, dangling her legs over the edge. "I've been looking for you everywhere. I finally had to get Bob to locate you for me." Zara raised an eyebrow. "I just thought you might like to talk," AndrAIa explained. 

They sat in breezy silence for a moment, as a fine wind blowing from Los Angles played with errant strands of hair. 

AndrAIa could see that she would have to speak first. "How are you doing?" she finally managed to ask. 

Zara drew her knees up under her chin and wrapped her hands about her legs. "Okay…I guess…" She remained silent for another nano, her lips set in a firm, angry line. "It's just been so hard…First, the system I was assigned to was ravaged and destroyed…then I lose my family…" 

AndrAIa reached over and placed a hand on the Guardian's shoulder. "It's not your fault. 

"That's what everyone keeps telling me…especially Bob and Matrix. But I can't help but feeling responsible for all those deletions, even those of my parents." She pounded a fist into the concrete. "Arun didn't even have a chance!" 

AndrAIa listened silently while she young women vented the emotions that were throwing her processor and heart into a state of turmoil. 

After uttering a string of colorful curses, the Guardian turned back to her friend. "I'm know, I'm overreacting." 

The game sprite shook her head. "No, you're not. Any other normal person would have acted just as you have." 

Zara sighed. "I suppose you're right." She turned to AndrAIa, a devilish glint in her blue within blue eyes. "So how are things going between you and Matrix?" 

AndrAIa giggled as a blush reddened her speckled cheeks. "Perfectly fine, but I won't elaborate further. But enough about me. What about you and Michael?" 

Zara abruptly chortled. "Me? _And Michael?_" 

"Of course! Don't tell me you don't like him! I've seen the way you two look at each other when you think no one is looking." 

Zara crossed her arms, disbelief and denial flashing across her face. "I **do not** feel like that toward him! He's just my friend!" 

"Oh please, you two are worse than Bob and Dot." 

"What are you talking about? I thought they were an item." 

The green-haired sprite laughed. "They are, but you should have seen them before the restart. Their feelings towards each other were so obvious to everyone but them it was almost embarrassing!" 

Zara paled slightly, letting her arms drop to her sides. "And you think…Michael…and I are like that?" 

AndrAIa shrugged. "I'm not denying or confirming anything." A smile formed on her lips. "That's up to you." 

"You're random, you know that?" 

~~~~~~~~~~

The smaller Guardian observed the system passing below her as she and Bob zipped along towards Lost Angles. "tell me again why we're doing this," she asked incredulously. 

"We're just going to as Hex for a favor." 

"She's a virus." 

"A _benign_ virus, and a registered sprite." 

"She's still a virus, and a _chaotic_ one at that!" 

"Yes, she may be a couple circuits short of a motherboard, but we still need her help." 

Zara shuddered. "Couldn't you have taken Matrix?" 

Bob turned to look at her skeptically. "We're talking about _Matrix_, giant green guy with a gun, right?" 

"Is there any other?" 

"Well, I don't know what she'd think of him, but I'd be worried close contact between the two. I don't think Matrix would be very civil to anyone related to Megabyte, and Hex, well…I have no idea how she'd react to him. He might provoke her into to doing something that involves blowing up things. Which would be bad." 

"Very bad," Zara agreed. 

She shifted her gaze forward as Lost Angles came into view. The bridge that connected the sector that was all that remained of the Twin City was twisted almost beyond recognition, forming into loops and spirals, certainly not to be used to walk across. 

The sector that all inhabitants of Mainframe avoid whenever possible was even more distorted. It was an array of colors, splattered every which way. A colossal chessboard dominated one corner of the sector, and contorted structures that were the nightmare of architects were strewn about. The building in which Hexadecimal had her lair situated jutted out of the very center of her beloved chaos, a black thorn against the sky. 

Zara fidgeted uneasily as Bob led her downwards. "I hope this won't take too long…this place gives me the jaggies." 

"I'm sure it-" 

A gaping opened up beneath them. Their zipboards were ripped from beneath their feet, and they plunged into complete darkness as the chasm closed over them. Zara bit back a scream as they fell down a long slide, impossibly fast. As they continued, it became lighter. 

She actually did scream as the ground disappeared from underneath them and she started to turn head-over-heels. 

Zara had no need to worry, for she and Bob were abruptly suspended in midair. She looked to Bob, or more like his boots, floating next to her, but he seemed to be perfectly calm, while her heart was thumping in her chest. 

A gleeful laugh crackled around them. "I'm so glad you've come to visit me, Bob!" A white face floated in the inky blackness, its eyes an eerily bright green. A leather clad body appeared behind the mask as Hexadecimal melted out of the shadows. 

Zara struggled to refrain from shuddering, not knowing how the ex-virus would react. 

"Hex, could you let us down, please?" Bob asked. 

"Of course! Anything for you, love." Hexadecimal complied, and the two Guardians floated downward until they were a couple of inches above the floor, and dropped. Bob awkwardly caught Zara as she fell. 

"Being right-side up is much better than being the other way around," Zara commented as Bob helped her to her feet. 

"I see that you bought a friend!" Hexadecimal moved closer to them, examining Zara closely. "My, you're so little! Zara, correct?" 

"Yes." 

"One of last three uninfected Guardians, if I am correct. Just you, Bob, and the renegade Matrix, up against the whole Collective." She laughed softly to herself. "This little war of yours shall be very interesting." 

"Hex-," Bob started, but she interrupted him. 

"How rude of me!" she exclaimed. "I've been such a dreadful hostess! Please take a seat." Hexadecimal waved her hand, and Zara and Bob found themselves seated in elegant chairs similar to Hexadecimal's throne, and a table between them. "I'll be right back with the tea and cookies!" The ex-virus vanished. 

Bob leaned over and whispered to Zara, "Whatever you do, do not eat the cookies. Hex couldn't cook something edible to save her life. And User knows what she puts in them." 

He sat back as Hexadecimal reappeared, tray of said cookies in hand. Another chair appeared behind her, and she sat down, setting the tray on the table. She waved her hand, and a teacup appeared in front of each of the sprites. 

"Now," Hexadecimal said, pulling a teapot of nowhere and pouring tea for each of them, "what brings the two of you all the way out here?" 

"Hex, we need your help." As soon as Bob had said it, he looked as though he instantly regretted it. 

"Me?" Hexadecimal raised a shapely eyebrow. "You need _my_ help? Whatever for, dearest?" 

"Allow me and Zara to explain." 

~~~~~~~~~~

Zara plopped down on the couch next to Michael. The old springs squeaked in protest. "I'm so exhausted." She sank back into the overstuffed cushions and closed her eyes. 

"Same here." Michael unsuccessfully tried to suppress a gaping yawn. The two of them had deposited themselves in Michael's room, fatigued from the past second. 

The Resistance, as it had come to be called, had been working nonstop for the last second on their battle plan. As promised, Turbo had been their eyes and ears in the Super Computer, and had informed the Resistance that a war fleet was scheduled to attack Mainframe, infecting the last clean Guardians: Bob, Matrix, and Zara. 

Working together as they helped the Mainframers prepare for the impending battle, Zara had found, despite herself, she was growing closer to her friend, feeling emotions so strong they were impossible to deny. She hoped, prayed that Michael felt the same, but neither had ventured to discuss it. Yet. 

"Helping Dot organize everything has worn me out," Michael said, his voice tumbling Zara to the present. 

She mumbled an agreement. 

Michael moved aside the speckled arm the Guardian had draped over her face. "Is that all you have to say?" he asked. She half-heartedly slapped away his hand, then stretched out over the couch, resting her head in his lap. 

He rubbed her other hand, marveling at how small it was compared to his own. "How are you holding up?" 

Zara sighed heavily, and opened her eyes, gazing into Michael's own brilliant green eyes. "I'm…not too good." She pulled herself into a sitting position with her back to him so that he could not see the tears that had started trickling down her face. 

He hesitated for a moment, then slid an arm around her small waist. "Are you sure you want to do this?" he asked quietly. He noted the spots that stood out upon skin paled by stress and megacycles sitting in front of a computer screen. 

She wiped a hand over her face and nodded grimly. "Bob and the others need all the help they can get." She sighed again. "Can't go against my protocol." 

Michael sank back into the couch, running a hand through his jet black locks. "You don't have to go!" he said fervently. He sat back up and pulled her into his lap. He lifted up her chin and looked into her eyes, wanting to drown in those sapphire pools. "You don't have to leave me." 

Her voice was barely more than a whisper. "Michael…" She laid a hand on the side o his face, lightly touching his silver skin. "I have to. There is no alternative." 

He placed his own hand on top of hers. "Then let me go with you!" he demanded, knowing well what the answer would be, 

"You know I can't do that," Zara said softly. "You don't have any training, and I can't risk you getting hurt." He looked away. "We need someone to stay here, if we…" She faltered, afraid to finish the sentence. 

Michael breathed out a long sigh. "I know, I know…but I can't stop worrying about you." 

She remained silent for several moments, then spoke, gathering all the courage she could muster. "Michael?" 

"Yeah?" 

"I…I love you." 

He looked at her a moment, then leaned in close to her, so close that she could feel his warm breath whisper against her skin. "I love you too." 

Impulsively, she grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him down, and he sank into her embrace.


	7. Providence

**Chapter VII:  
Providence**

Zara sighed heavily, as she found herself doing often, strapping a rifle to her back and a pistol to her leg. She sincerely wished she was staying, that this wasn't happening, but there was nothing she could do. She had to do what was needed, even at the cost of her own life. 

What really bothered her was that they weren't even taking in troops with them, or backup of any kind. But that could not be helped, either. 

In the last few seconds, Mainframe had received thousands of refugees from other systems, fleeing Daemon's wrath. Among them, there were pitifully few that were trained in any fighting techniques, and those who were did not make themselves known. Several refugees had informed them that before Daemon decided devastated a system, she deleted any who could up any resistance. Mainframe's troops were few in number also, and were under strict order to remain in the system to defend from the supervirus's armada, should the plan to defeat Daemon fail. 

Only seven sprites were journeying to the Super Computer: Bob, Matrix, Zara, Mouse, and Ray. Each had been equipped with a suit of armor - with the exception of the Surfer - formatted into their icons. Zara hated her with a vengeance; it was bulky, prevented movement, and the smell of dead web creatures sickened her slightly. 

Even with the system in relatively good condition, that would not stop games from landing. So, AndrAIa was to stay behind to defend Mainframe from the game cubes. Dot could not leave her post as Command.com, and Michael was to stay to help her. No one liked the setup, but the matter had been discussed at length and the decisions made. 

The former virus Hexadecimal was also remaining in Mainframe for the majority of the campaign, to the relief of some, and the dread of others. She was, of course, all for facing the supervirus for sending the web creature through her mirror and causing, as she put it, "that whole dreadful business with the ." However, she was needed, with her finite power limits, as a second line of defense should the armada still attack Mainframe. She was quite disappointed at not going. 

Zara glanced up the immense ship floating majestically in the harbor. The _Aurora_, the reincarnation of the Saucy Mare, was one of the most impressive ships she had seen in her short lifetime. Long and sleek, it was built for speed, beauty, and if necessary, battle. Dot had graciously supplied the funds, materials, and labor to build the ship, asking nothing in return from the Captain, whom she fondly addressed as Gavin, but a few business propositions. Gavin himself had been quite pleased with the offer and the result of the ship itself, so in the Command.com's honor, he had had the figurehead fashioned to an astonishing likeness of the woman. The _Aurora_'s armor glittered dully in light of early morning. 

Ready as she could be, Zara pulled out Presario and attached it to one of her metal arm guards. The keytool whirred and chirped, as if reassuring her; she gave a small smile in response. 

Seeing the others were still busy with last nanosecond preparations, Zara stepped off to one side where Michael was examining some equipment. She plunked herself down on a nearby barrel, careful no to disturb his work. "That the viral hardware?" she asked, though she already knew the answer. 

"Yep," he replied, checking off another item on his list. 

The antiviral weaponry, AVs for short, was a relatively new concept. Since they were to be up against infected Guardians and troops, Dot, Michael, and Mouse had been working together to create hardware to aid the Resistance. There was no hope in fighting the infection directly, but a single AV shot could temporarily block the viral agents in a sprite's system for a maximum of ten nanoseconds. 

"It _should_ keep them out of service for a little while," Mouse had reminded them. They had had only once chance to test the AVs when she and Ray had returned from a scouting mission with an off-line Guardian. After the effects of the AV had worn off, the Guardian of gotten hold of a rifle and shot himself, leaving the Resistance still almost nowhere. 

"Better you have some hope than none," Phong had said, quoting some long deleted philosopher. 

Zara looked at Michael for a moment, and feeling her eyes upon him, he glanced up at her. He opened his mouth as if to speak, then looked away, his heart choking him into silence. There was so much he wanted, he needed to say to her, and time was fading before his eyes. Even after the night they had shared together, both of them did not know what to say to the other. She looked at him once more, then slid off the barrel and walked away. 

She spied the younger Enzo perched on a crate, with the ever faithful Frisket at his side. The boy sat with a hand idly scratching his friend's head, as he watched the doings about the docks with an wary eye. It still amazed her that one with the innocence of an angel and the energy output of a tear could have become a huge, brooding warrior who all but hated what he had once been. 

"What's processing?" she asked, sitting down next to him. 

He started at the sound of her voice, then relaxed as he recognized the small Guardian. "Oh, nothin'…" His clear violet eyes fleetingly darted to where the older Enzo and their mentor were quietly talking, their backs to Zara and Enzo. 

Matrix felt the boy's gaze. He turned, gave him a wan smile, then turned back to Bob, his usual frown reasserting itself. 

Zara watched Enzo carefully. "Worried?" 

"Yeah…especially about Dot." 

"She's not going." 

"I know…but if the- Matrix, or Mouse…or Bob…" He sighed. "If any of them didn't make it back, she'd start crying again. She doesn't deserve to hafta anymore." He grinned, the grave expression that little boys should never have to wear melting away, replaced by his regular smirk. "I _know_ how much she likes Bob, and I don't think she wants him to leave." 

She laughed softly, trying not to disturb the other Guardians. "I think **everyone** around here knows that." 

"Zara!" She looked up to see Bob motioning to her. "I think everything's just about ready," he said. 

"Duty calls, kid." Zara hopped off the crate. "You take good care of your sister, okay?" She playfully spun the boy's red cap around and walked over to join Bob where he now stood with the Command.com. 

"Are we ready to go?" Zara asked. 

Bob sighed. "Yep. The ship's loaded, and the Captain is ready to pull out, but we're just waiting for one more thing." 

She and Dot grimaced. "I doubt she's being held back," Zara muttered. 

Bob rolled his eyes. "She'll be here soon, don't worry," he reassured them. 

"Soon, my AS-" Dot stopped in mid-sentence as she felt a presence emerge out of nothing behind her, and the Command.com slowly turned around to face the ex-virus, fighting down the urge to cringe. 

"How delightful to see you again, Dot!" Hexadecimal exclaimed. She smiled and brushed past the other two women, coming to a stop next to the only blue-skinned sprite present. "Charged and ready, Bob," she said, giving him a sly smile that could mean any number of things. 

Bob carefully stepped back, trying to put some distance between him and Hexadecimal. "Uhhh…" 

Dot leaned over and hit him on his chest with the back of her hand. "Oh, um, you can go ahead and get on the _Aurora_ now." 

"Of course, Bob." The ruby lips spread in a wider grin. 

Zara jumped as a hand fell on her shoulder. "I guess this…means goodbye," Michael said quietly. She shook for a moment, struggling to control herself. Then she turned and threw her arms around his neck. "Michael, I don't want go," she whispered fervently into his hair, her breath and tears hot on his neck. He was momentarily started by her sudden outburst of public affection, but quickly recovered and wrapped his arms about her. He held onto her as though he would never let go, as if this one moment in time would never end. 

Dot had agreed that she wouldn't make her lover's leaving a big affair. She had known this moment would come, and it had gnawed at her megacycle after megacycle. But, as both of them suspected, it didn't work out that way. 

Pulling him close, she twined her arms around his neck tangled her fingers into his thick hair. Then she stiffened in his embrace as she felt Hexadecimal peering at them. 

"Do you mind?" Dot said coldly, pumping venom into her voice, as she glared at the other woman. 

"Not at all." 

Dot glared at her once more, then smiled slightly as a thought entered her processor. She roughly grabbed Bob and pressed her lips to his. Mahogany eyes widened for moment, with the force of the kiss and the jealous intentions behind it. But frankly, he didn't care, and meet Dot with the same intensity. 

The viral women narrowed her eyes, but discretely turned her back on the couple, and floated over to the ship, where she proceeded to speak with the Captain and throw his crew into a wild panic. 

Not wanting to make a public display, AndrAIa and Matrix had said their good-byes in the intimate privacy of their apartment. He planted a single kiss lovingly on her forehead, then boarded the ship, joining Mouse and Ray at the helm. He didn't say a good-bye to his sister, seeing how she was occupied with her lover. 

Finally, Bob puled away. "I'll come back," he said quietly. 

"Promise?" 

"I promise." He stepped back, gripping her hand for a moment, then released it. He walked to where Zara and Michael were still wrapped in an embrace, and gently touched her arm. "It's time." 

Zara lifted her head from Michael's shoulder, and stepped away, staring into his green eyes. He reached up and tenderly touched the side of face, then dropped his hand as Bob walked her to the ship and they boarded, neither looking back. 

Four sprites watched with heavy hearts as the _Aurora_ pulled away on its maiden voyage.


	8. Ignis Fatuus

**

Chapter VIII:  
Ignis Fatuus

**

The two Guardians, the search engine, the renegade, and the hacker stood on the main deck as the _Aurora_ approached the boundaries of the Energy Sea. The ex-virus hung about the main mast, far above the deck, letting loose a delighted cackle now and then. The crew conveniently found other duties to perform to avoid being in her proximity. The captain watched solemnly from behind the navigator, wondering what fate awaited his comrades at their destination. 

The presence of Hexadecimal was unpleasant but had a purpose: she was needed to open a portal to the Web. Under normal circumstances, Bob or Ray would have formed the portal, but the Guardian would need to be at full strength, and creating a portal large enough to admit the _Aurora_ would be too draining. Intelligence reports stated that Daemon's forces were pursuing all sources of nonviral portals, rendering the Surfer's portal-forming abilities useless for the time being. Hexadecimal, though a normal data sprite in most aspects, still retained her viral abilities and peculiar characteristics. 

The _Aurora_ slowed, and halted smoothly at the border of the Energy Sea. 

"Hex, it's time," Bob called up to her. 

"Already?" She floated down to the deck, a slightly pouty look on her bleached face. "But I was having so much fun." She whined like a child being told to go to bed. 

"You'll have time for fun later." Bob guided her to the stern; the others kept their distance. "Now, remember how we practiced?" 

"Yesssss…" Hexadecimal lifted her arms, gathering power, then paused for a moment, forgetting what came next. 

"Concentrate," he prodded. 

She slowly closed her eyes and focused. A pinprick of light appeared before the ship. Slowly, it expanded into a sphere of light that became as immense as the _Aurora_ herself. Opening the liquid green pools that were her eyes, Hexadecimal floated upward, closer to it. She lightly placed her palms upon the surface, fingers splayed, and a yellowish light glowed about her hands. The Web appeared in the orb of light, stretched across the sphere, twisting in bizarre shapes and colors. 

Bob repressed a shudder upon seeing it again. Even now, before he was to enter, the dark swirling eddies of the Web made his stomach knot in dread. Too many dark memories of that place skulked in the shadows, and he didn't wish to add to them. 

Hexadecimal, her duty done, disappeared in a flash of white light, transporting back to Mainframe and to her lair. 

Ray leaned his head close to Mouse. "How does he stand her, love? That woman's more random than…well, more than anything I've come across." 

Mouse shook her head. "Ray, I've known that sprite maybe the longest out of all of us, and I still don't know what's going on in his processor." She slid an arm around the Surfer's waist. "Sometimes he worries me." 

"I've only known that bloke for a little while, but…somehow he's different from the rest of us." Ray planted a kiss on the hacker's forehead. "Something tells me he'll be all-right, once this is all o'er, love." 

Both looked up as the Captain gave the order to raise the shields. The Web shielding appeared overhead as if by magic, thanks to some creative programming on Mouse's part. The ship was shrouded in temporary darkness until far above the lights switched on with a dull hum. 

"All right, Mr. Norton, guide us through," the Captain said, and the _Aurora_ pulled into the portal. It snapped shut as soon as she entered, swallowing the ship whole as if she had never been. 

Bob moved back to join the others gathered a distance away from the stern, telling them to head on to the ship's conference room. As he lead the way Zara hung back, so that she walked in step with Matrix. 

He acknowledged her with a thin-lipped smile, his expression troubled. "You noticed how…off Bob's been lately?" 

She murmured a yes. "You're worried about him too?" 

Since she had arrived in Mainframe, Zara had almost immediately noted the changes in her friend, besides the obvious physical ones. Bob's jokes were now few and far in between. The aura of cheer that she had though always surrounded him had dimmed to an almost nothingness. He just wasn't…Bob anymore. 

Zara was answered with a barely perceptible nod. "Yeah." A pause. "He's not the Bob we knew, is he?" Matrix's voice was grim, and his good eye dark with worry, though focused on the Guardian walking ahead of them. 

She glanced at the blue-skinned sprite. He walked steadily, yet there was a sag to his shoulders, his head bowed in deep thought. "No, he isn't." 

~~~~~~~~~~ 

They had gathered at the long table in the conference room to review their plans. Maps and charts of the Super Computer lay scattered about. Bob had one displayed in a vidwindow, and was visibly tracing a route to the Principal Office with his finger. 

"According to Turbo's messages, the perimeter of the Principle Office is patrolled by armed troops, every seven nanoseconds," Bob was saying. He paused and glanced at the others. Mouse and Ray were paying some attention, but Zara and Matrix were merely staring blankly at the map, their thoughts obviously elsewhere. Zara's eyes had that glassy, unfocused look that had often occurred during her more lackluster classes. Bob sighed and closed the vidwindow. The movement brought Zara and Matrix back to reality. 

"Okay, I think it's obvious we need a break," Bob said, absently running a hand through his dark hair. "We've been at this for awhile. Everyone meet back here in about a cycle or so, and we'll finish going over the plans." 

He smiled at his friends aa they got up from the table. Mouse leaned over with a smug smile Bob knew well and whispered something to the Surfer. Ray grinned as she led him above deck. Rolling his eyes, Matrix pushed away from the table and headed to the galley to grab a bite to eat. Bob was about to follow when he noticed the smaller Guardian still seated, her head in her hands like a fragile vase. 

"Zara? You all right?" 

"I'm fine," she muttered, without turning to look at him. 

Concerned, but not wanting to bother her, he started out the door, but Zara grabbed him by the wrist. "Okay, maybe I'm not fine." 

Bob sat down next to her as she let go, worrying about his young friend. It had been a long time since he had seen her at such a level of distress. "What's wrong?" 

Zara rubbed at her temples with the heels of her hands. "This whole mission, attacking Daemon and all that…I don't know if I can handle it." Her voice grew faster and more high pitched as her anxiety grew. "I mean, I'm just a system Guardian! They never told us about this sort of thing at the Academy! I don't know how I managed to get involved in this!" 

"Woah, now wait a nano! Slow down; sometimes you're worse than Enzo after an energy shake binge." 

"Oh, thanks. You're making me feel much better," she muttered sarcastically, but a hint of smile graced her lips with Bob's attempt to humor her. 

"Zara, you were one of the top of your class. If you-" He paused, searching for the right words. "If you weren't as strong and capable as you are, you wouldn't have survived the Academy or manage to get all the way to Mainframe on your own. Trust me, you'll make it through this." 

His words warmed her heart, but did little to abate the ever growing fear that was ready to blanket her completely and consume her will. 

"Are you as scared as I am?" 

Bob stiffened and looked away. The terror he had been able to keep at bay in preparing for their encounter with Daemon showed him its face for a single horrifying moment. Reminding him he could die anywhere along their journey, and his friends and love would perish under Daemon's hand. _Don't show your fear, don't show your-_

_If you don't, it's just gonna make things worse._

He looked at her straight on, caught and held the blue eyes. He breathed out a sigh. 

"Yes." 

"I'm not alone, then?" 

"No." His voice cracked audibly, but Zara took no notice of it. 

She reached over and wrapped her arms around his neck in a friendly and very grateful hug. "Thank you, Bob." 

"Don't mention it," he said, hugging her back. "I promise you, we'll all get through this and you'll be back with Michael before you know it." If the User wills it… a tiny voice whispered. He released her and stood up. "Wanna get something to eat with me and Matrix?" 

"Sure." 

~~~~~~~~~~

The _Aurora_ came to a stop before the glittering ball of light, casting dark shadows that twitched and jerked across the hull. 

"We've arrived at the Web address of the Super Computer, Cap'n," announced Mr. Norton, releasing the wheel and flipping up his single eye patch. 

"Thank you, Mr. Norton." Gavin turned to Bob. "Are ye sure you want to go through with this, Guardian?" he questioned softly. "The Super Computer is a nasty place these megacycles, and Daemon isn't too keen on visitors." 

Bob stood next to the airlock, dressed in his Web armor, helmet under one arm. He turned to Gavin. "I think we're the Net's best, and perhaps only chance." Bob gave the Captain a small smile, though the lines of his face were grim. "I'd rather be back in Mainframe at the moment, but would you have us wait until Daemon finds us, old friend?" 

"Aye lad, no," Gavin murmured in answer. "Wouldn't wish that fate on anyone." He stretched up an arm and gripped Bob's shoulder. "Luck be with ye, lad, and may the User watch your back." 

Bob dipped his head. "Thank you, Gavin." 

The Captain turned to a crew member standing nearby. "Mr. Sigma, open the hatch!" 

"Yes sir, Cap'n sir." The binome pulled a lever, and the heavy door of the airlock swung open. Matrix entered first, followed by Ray, Mouse, Zara, and Bob last. The door closed behind them, and locked as Mr. Sigma spun the wheel. Bob nodded, the signal to put on their web protection. Ray tapped his icon and was encased in the reptilian skin of his web armor. The others pulled on their helmets and sealed them into place. Bob was thankful for his new helmet, which allowed him to see and speak normally. 

Mouse wrinkled her nose in distaste. "Sugah, is it supposed to smell like something died in here?" she asked, addressing Bob. 

He rolled his eyes mockingly. "Well, the armor _is_ made from dead web creatures." 

"Can we just get a move on so I get out of this thing?" Zara muttered. The foul stench of her web armor repulsed her, and already the bulk of it was becoming heavy. 

Matrix moved to the inner door and rapped on it with knuckles. "Ready, Captain." His voice, like those of the others wearing helmets, was muffled and hollow. 

A short buzz sounded and a red light appeared over the inner door. There was a hiss as the air was removed. With another buzz, the light over the inner door turned green and the outer door unsealed itself, sliding open silently. The atmosphere of the Web rapidly filled the small space, a chilling gust that seemed to penetrate thick armor and settle in the bones. 

Despite his best efforts, again Bob could not repress a shiver. With an almost visible effort to force himself to take control of the situation, he said, "Let's move out." 

Ray was closest to the outer door. He stepped onto his baud and glided out the exit, Mouse at his back. He was used to the Web, but this dark megacycle, even he felt the iciness. This wasn't a normal trek into the Web. This was something he might not come back from. Mouse had once asked him why he stayed in Mainframe. His answer had been he had finally found someone that made his stay - perhaps a permanent stay - worth every nanosecond. That, and he had found people he could call friends, which until then had numbered pitifully few. 

The others followed him out on their zipboards, making their way to the huge tear that represented the Web address of the Super Computer. Ray stopped before it, and motioned for Mouse to move back on the baud. "If you're too close, love, you might get a little shock." 

Behind the dark goggles, the surfer closed his eyes and focused. What he was about to do was difficult, and if it wasn't done correctly, he and the others in the near vicinity could be hit with the shockwave of a backlash strong enough to cause pain. Ray hadn't told them of this after-effect; not even Mouse knew of it. He was aware that while the Mainframers trusted him, they were still wary of his outlandishness and strange abilities. He wasn't sure what how their perceptions of him would change should this backfire, but it would not be for the better. 

Ray slowly drew in a single breath, and allowed the energy to flow through him and gather at his hands. Mouse, several feet behind him, could feel the crackle of the forces gathered about him, as his hands began glow blue. He opened his eyes and let a small trickle of blue energy flow from him. It hit the tear, concentrating on one small area. He clenched his fists, and the blue energy pulled away, taking part of the tear with it, forming a smaller tear, dwarfed by the original. Ray's arms trembled with effort as he guided the small tear nearer to him so that the original would not interfere with making the portal. 

The energy about his hands changed from blue to greenish yellow. The baud swayed as he shot the energy at the small tear, forcing Mouse to crouch down and grab hold. Ray breathed out in relief as the energy made contact, swirled, and the image of the Super Computer spread out over the newly formed portal. 

A hand squeezed his shoulder. "Good job, sugah. Knew you had it in you." He clasped her hand in return, then guided his baud through the doorway into a new world of nightmares and dreads. Bob, Zara, and Matrix were right behind them. The portal dissipated into nothingness after Matrix passed through it. 

_A/N: 'Ignis fatuus' is Latin for 'a deceptive goal or hope'._


End file.
